Red Tories

Red Tories are conservatives who believe in capitalism and in moderate social democratic public policy. Until their extermination in the 1993 federal election, they were the reason that all the major parties in the Canadian political spectrum operated in territory slightly to the left of, say, the Clinton Democrats in the U.S. Kim Campbell was, for instance, a fairly typical Red Tory. She’d actually read several pages of 18th Century philosopher Edmund Burke, played a musical instrument, could speak a foreign language and, as Justice Minister, introduced an amendment to the nation’s Human Rights Act to protect the rights of homosexuals. When asked by a member of the Family Values Caucus of her party what in the world she thought she was doing, she replied, “Justice.” Other Red Tories of note: Michael Valpy, Dalton Camp, Robert Stanfield and NDP leader Alexa McDonut’s current boyfriend.

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